Before I go [whence] I shall not return, [even] to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Ver. 21. Before I go whence I shall not return] Before I go out of this world, never more to return hither to enjoy the comforts that are here to be had. Death is a departure hence, 1Pe 1:15 Luke 9:31. And so the ancients (Irenaeus, Clement, and others) used to call it. I shall change my place, but not my company, said that dying saint who had here walked with God in uprightness, and was now to bid adieu to all worldly interests (Tertul.). The old Romans were wont to say of a dead friend, Abiit, et reversurus est, He is gone, and will come again. It seems hereby that they had some dark notions of a resurrection; whence also their poets called a dead body a soul; - animamque sepulchro condimus (Virg. Æneid). The Hebrews did the like, Numbers 5:2; Numbers 9:10; Num 19:11 Haggai 2:13,14, as having a more sure word of prophecy; and Job was clear in this point, firmly believing in the resurrection of his body, Job 19:26,27. It must needs be therefore that he speaks here of not returning into this world. See the like, Job 16:22 Psa 39:13 2 Samuel 12:23 .
Even to the land of darkness, &c.] See Trapp on " Job 10:22 "